Lesson 1
Many people criticize me for emphasizing healing. They say, “This isn’t important. You don’t have to be healed to go to heaven. You shouldn’t spend any of your time on radio, television, or in print emphasizing healing. It’s a secondary issue. You’re making it greater than it is!”
In a letter forwarded to me from a certain radio station, one man threatened to take legal action against me. Basically, he said, “It’s a big sin for you to take people’s money, which is hard to come by, and preach something like healing!” This fellow was one of many people who contend that it’s a waste of time to talk about healing. I strongly disagree!
Healing is part of Christ’s Atonement. If Jesus died to provide healing for us, then it’s not just incidental. If the Lord suffered and took stripes on His back for our physical healing, then it’s not insignificant. If Jesus thought enough of healing to purchase it for us, then we ought to think enough of it to receive.
God the Father caused His Son to bear all of our sins and all of our sicknesses on the cross. Jesus took our diseases just as much as He took our sins. Therefore, it honors Him to promote healing. In fact, Jesus spent more time talking about healing than He did several other truths that many people consider to be essential—heaven-and-hell—issues today. Actually, the Lord used healing like a bell to get people’s attention and to prove that He did have power on earth to forgive sins. Many scriptural examples illustrate this.
Healing and Forgiveness
In Mark 2, some friends of a man who suffered from the palsy couldn’t get him into the house where Jesus was ministering, because of the great crowd. Undeterred, they took him up to the top of the house, removed some tiles from the roof, and lowered this man in his stretcher right down in front of Him.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.
Mark 2:5
Notice that Jesus said, “Son, your sins be forgiven you.”
But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?
Mark 2:6-9
If Jesus had only been a mere man, it would have been impossible for Him to say either, “Rise up and walk” or “Your sins are forgiven you.” Only God can forgive sins, and man in his physical ability does not have the power to produce healing. However, Jesus, being both fully God and fully man, could actually say and do both these things—healing and forgiveness.
It’s easier to say “Your sins be forgiven you” because you can’t see a sin, and you can’t see if a sin is forgiven and dealt with or not. If someone challenged you, saying, “You can’t do that,” you could just answer, “I’ll prove it!”
Verification
Jesus was saying that it’s easier to say “Your sins are forgiven” than “Rise up and walk” because they would immediately be able to tell if He had the power or not by whether this man rose up and walked. For the Lord to say to this man in front of this crowd, “Rise up and walk,” was actually harder because instantly, there would be physical evidence whether it did or didn’t work.
If you can do the greater work, then certainly you can do the lesser. If you can jump fifteen feet, then certainly you can jump two feet.
The people in the house were just sitting there in silence, not knowing how to respond. Then Jesus continued, saying,
But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.
Mark 2:10-12
Jesus made it very clear that the reason He healed this man was so people would know He also had power on earth to forgive sins. The Lord used healing as verification that He had power to deal with unseen things. If He could deal with physical bodies and meet the physical and emotional needs of people, then He could also deal with their spiritual needs. Jesus used healing like a bell to draw people to Himself and get their attention, and then He would tell them the truth.
Words Only?
Jesus also said that the miracles He did authenticated who He was and confirmed what He said.
But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.
John 5:36
Although Jesus pointed to the testimony that John the Baptist bore of Him, He wasn’t counting on it. Christ was dependent on the miracles He performed to confirm to people that His Father had sent Him. If Jesus needed the witness of the miracles He performed to validate His authority, then how can we possibly do less? It is the height of arrogance to think that we can use words alone to persuade people, when Jesus had to have signs and miracles to confirm His words.
The Way it Should Be
Some folks say, “We don’t need miracles today; we have the Word of God.” Yet that’s not what the Bible teaches. Mark 16 reveals to us some of the final instructions Jesus gave His disciples before He ascended back to heaven. Notice what He promised after commanding us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel:
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.
Mark 16:17-20
In other words, God used miracles to confirm that it was really Him speaking through these people. This passage also reveals that the Lord confirms the true preaching and teaching of His Word with signs following.
Based on this, I can truthfully say today that if ministers do not have the miraculous power of God flowing through them, then I would be skeptical about whether or not God is truly speaking through them. Now, don’t misunderstand me: I’m not saying that a person who doesn’t have healings manifest in their ministry is not of God. Neither am I saying to just automatically trust all the words of anyone who performs a miracle. What people say must always be checked against God’s Word. However, in God’s system, when His Word is truly preached, there will be signs and wonders to confirm that it is the truth.
We live in a day and age where the message of salvation has been corrupted and divided into parts. Certain aspects are neglected and misunderstood by most of the body of Christ. Many people are preaching only the forgiveness of sins. God confirms all of His Word that we preach, but if all we preach are things having spiritual, eternal value and the forgiveness of sins, then all we’ll see is people being born again. But if we preach and teach the whole counsel of God, He will confirm it with signs, wonders, and miracles. This is the way God has established it in the Scriptures, and this is the way it should be.
We Do Too!
Not all true people of God see miracles today, because they aren’t preaching the whole counsel of God. Some people that I respect very much have been faithful with the revelation that they have. They’ve seen people born again and lives transformed. I definitely wouldn’t say that they aren’t true ministers. However, it’s obvious that they aren’t preaching the whole counsel of God. God’s will is for His whole counsel to be preached, and He will confirm it with signs and wonders following.
Hebrews 2:3-4 says,
How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
This says that God confirmed with miracles the Word that Jesus preached. When He had ascended to heaven and the disciples took over the ministry on this earth, God also confirmed the Word that they spoke with signs, wonders, and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His will.
No one today can claim they are operating better than Jesus did. In fact, most Christians aren’t even regularly seeing the fullness of the manifestation of God’s power the way the early apostles did. Who do we think we are, to believe that somehow or another, we have a superior anointing or ability to minister effectively in God’s eyes without needing miracles today? That’s the height of arrogance. If both Jesus and the early believers needed miracles, signs, and wonders to confirm the message from God that they preached, then we do too!
